Cody Walker's Woman. Amelia Autin

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СКАЧАТЬ the agency. I know him like I know myself.” She looked at Trace. “I don’t know Cody the way I know you, but I trust him with my life, the same way I trust you.”

      Trace’s eyes narrowed again, and he looked as if he were going to demand further elucidation of her statement, but Nick D’Arcy preempted him. “That’s enough,” he said. “I just wanted to make a point. That’s why I’m sending Special Agent Jones as well as the two of you. Even though Callahan might not trust her, I do. End of discussion.”

      It was a dismissal, and all three agents rose and filed out. Cody walked toward the elevator and punched the button, Keira and Trace right behind him.

      “Wait up,” Keira said. “We need to talk about next steps.”

      Cody glanced down at her and gave her an assessing look. “I’ve got to talk to Callahan, see what he says.”

      “Shouldn’t we talk about it first, the three of us?”

      “Look,” he said, “don’t take this the wrong way. But O’Neill is a tad, shall we say, old-school?”

      “O’Neill?” She knew her face reflected her puzzlement. “I thought his name was Callahan.”

      Cody rubbed the bridge of his nose, his lips pursing at his mistake. “It is. But when I first knew him, he was going by the name of Reilly O’Neill. Sometimes I still call him that out of habit.”

      “Oh, I see.” She thought a moment. “What do you mean he’s a tad old-school?”

      The elevator arrived, and they all crowded in. “What floor?” Cody asked.

      “Twelve,” Trace volunteered.

      Cody pushed the button for the twelfth floor as well as the fifth-floor button for his own office.

      Keira reiterated her question. “What do you mean he’s a tad old-school?”

      Cody looked at Trace. “You know him, too, McKinnon. Wouldn’t you say he’s a throwback?”

      Trace laughed. “That’s an understatement.”

      Cody grimaced. “There’s no easy way to tell you, but...Callahan won’t like it that a woman is involved in the investigation.”

      “You’re kidding, right?” She glanced from Cody to her partner, then back again. Both faces had that expression men hid behind when they didn’t know what to say to a woman because no matter what they said, it was suicide one way or the other. “That’s not just old-school—he must be a dinosaur.”

      Cody laughed but said, “I have to talk to him about this, get his okay before we plan anything. I don’t care what Baker Street says—if Callahan says no, it’s no.”

      Keira opened her mouth, then closed it again. She made a sound of disbelief, but she didn’t know what to say. She turned accusatory eyes on her partner. “Is that how you feel, too?”

      Trace had that “deer in the headlights” look, but all he said was “It’s not my call,” then added in an undertone, “thank God.”

      “I don’t believe this,” Keira said to him, hurt battling anger for dominance as she confronted him. “We’ve been partners for three years. I thought you trusted me.”

      “I do,” Trace reassured her. “But I’m not Callahan. I can’t speak for him.”

      “Look,” Cody began. “It’s nothing against you personally....”

      The elevator door opened on the twelfth floor and Trace made his escape, but Keira stayed right where she was. She put her arm across the elevator door, preventing it from closing again, and when she did, her sleeve pulled up, exposing an ugly green-and-yellow bruise that encircled her wrist.

      “God,” Cody said, suddenly distressed. “Did I do that to you?” He reached out and touched her wrist with two fingers, brushing the bruise so lightly it didn’t hurt. He raised a troubled face to hers.

      “I don’t know,” she answered honestly. “It might have been you. Or it might have been one of the animals who jumped me.”

      He moved closer and held the elevator door open with his shoulder while he fit his fingers around her wrist. They matched the bruise exactly. “I am so sorry,” he said. She saw him swallow hard. “I didn’t realize...” He reached for her other wrist and pushed the sleeve back before she could stop him, exposing an even uglier bruise. His face contracted as if the sight hurt him.

      “It’s okay,” she assured him. “I bruise easily. You did what you had to do to save me. I don’t blame you. I...” He was brushing his fingers lightly over the bruise, back and forth, as if he could erase it that way, and the touch of his fingers was somehow erotic. She drew her hand away and pulled down the sleeve. “I’d far rather have the bruises than what else might have happened to me.” Her chin tilted up.

      There was just a second when she saw something in his eyes—a look of admiration tinged with frank, male appreciation—but it was gone so quickly she thought she must have imagined it.

      “Besides,” she added, pointing to the faint scratch marks on his left cheek. “I hurt you, too.”

      His hand rose involuntarily, as if he’d forgotten all about the marks she’d left on him. But then she could see him remembering what he’d done to her to make her scratch him so violently, and remorse filled his face.

      “Don’t think about that,” Keira said swiftly, and repeated, “You did what you had to do, and—” she made each of her next words a separate sentence for emphasis “—I. Don’t. Blame. You.”

      “I didn’t mean to be so...brutal.”

      “What you did was nothing compared to what they had in mind,” she reminded him.

      “Yeah, but...”

      “But nothing,” she said firmly. “Forget about it. I have,” she lied.

      He didn’t say anything, just looked at her in a way that reminded her of the moment when he’d told her to tie up her shirt that first night, and she felt her cheeks grow warm. That was the worst thing about having the pale skin that accompanied her red hair; any change in coloration was noticeable.

      Two people approached the elevator, glancing curiously at Cody and Keira talking so intently. Keira brushed past the other two agents, and Cody followed her out. The elevator doors slid closed behind them.

      “Wait,” he said. “We’re not quite finished.”

      She turned around, darting a quick look around to see if anyone was watching them, then asked, “What is it?”

      “I started to say it’s nothing against you personally why O’Ne—I mean Callahan probably won’t want to include you.” He punched the elevator button again. “It’s a long story, and maybe I’ll tell you sometime, but I’ve got a bullet hole in me because Callahan didn’t even trust the woman he eventually married with the truth.”

      Keira shook her head in puzzlement. “I don’t get it. If he didn’t trust her, why did he marry СКАЧАТЬ